To maximize and showcase the usability of the new developed system and generated products, SEN4LDN will be co-designed with several Early Adopters and demonstrated through several use cases that are related to LDN.
Three Early Adopters were selected to support the project by providing access to local calibration and validation data sets and to help in defining, validating and assessing the utility of the SEN4LDN EO products and system throughout the duration of the project.
Busitema University (Uganda)
Busitema University (Uganda) is a public University involved in capacity building through research based teaching and rural community engagement. Through its Faculty of Natural Resources, the University contributes to sustainable land management research and community engagement activities. The University spearheads land use planning activities in the context of LDN including the UNCCD PRAIS reporting on land degradation in the context of LDN for Uganda.
The Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development (Colombia)
The Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development (Colombia) is the national executive ministry of the Government of Colombia in charge of formulating, implementing, and orienting environmental policy to ensure the sustainable development of the country. The ministry is in charge of developing methodologies and guidelines within the framework of monitoring and tracking soil and land degradation, erosion, salinization, and desertification in Colombia and of reporting efforts towards Land Degredation Neutrality to UNCCD.
Institute for Conservation of Nature and Forests (Portugal)
The Institute for Conservation of Nature and Forests (Portugal) is the Portuguese public organization that is responsible for proposing, monitoring and ensuring the implementation of state policies regarding nature conservation and forests. One of its responsibilities is to monitor land degradation in Portugal and while the government has not defined land degradation neutrality targets for the SDG 2030 agenda yet, there are a number of projects under the umbrella of this organization that target ecosystem restoration and to combat desertification in mainland Portugal as well as PRAIS4 reporting for the United Nations.
European Environment Agency (EEA)
The European Environment Agency has been addressing land degradation and the related SDG 15.3.1 target since 2016. EEA has organized several user meetings and published a related report to gather the knowledge base in order to best support European policy making. Within the SEN4LDN project, the EEA will take up a consulting role, while being allowed to explore the data prototypes produced by SEN4LDN.
